Actor Adam Goldberg to release The Goldberg Sisters

Apology Music/Play It Again Sam (PIAS America) has announced it will now release THE GOLDBERG SISTERS, the self-titled album that marks Adam Goldberg’s new sonic outing, on April 12. In addition, THE GOLDBERG SISTERS will unveil a brand new video for the track “Shush” in late February before venturing to Austin, TX in March to debut live material from the new album at SXSW (details to be announced).

Following his highly acclaimed musical debut under the guise of LANDy, actor/filmmaker/musician/producer Adam Goldberg returns with a body of work which encompasses everything from the psychedelic to the “psychotropic” and explores themes from the depressing to the negligible. THE GOLDBERG SISTERS was spearheaded in the wake of LANDY’s 2009 critically acclaimed debut album Eros and Omissions, which was compiled from six years worth of recordings and featured many guests and collaborators including the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd and Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart. As the Los Angeles Times observed: “Goldberg’s sonically layered art-pop reflects his curiosity as both a songwriter and a knob-twiddler.” Elsewhere, BlackBook noted that the album was “…assured, fractured and, at times, downright nasty” and that “…the album swells and shivers like a forlorn lover lost in a downpour.”

Largely recorded and mixed in one six-week stint at Espinoza’s The Ship studio in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles late 2009, much of the template for the new record was established during the LANDy sessions, drawing particularly from the single “BFF!” in which Goldberg alternates between verses of stripped down bass, piano drums, and choruses layered with strings, synths, guitars and vocal harmonies. Goldberg’s LANDy collaborators, vocalists Space Echo and Echoplex—or Sister Echo, as she is known—return to make a prominent appearance on THE GOLDBERG SISTERS. As the album’s producers, Espinoza and Goldberg combine their infatuation with analog gear with the limitless potential of Pro Tools.

Adam Goldberg, a self-described gearhead, explains, “There’s a lot of Space Echo, a lot of Echoplex on this record. Lots of effects pedals and ‘70s synth pads. But also layers of actual strings and trumpet played by humans. Merritt Lear and Roxanne Daner on violins and Andrew Lynch on trumpet functioned as a mini-orchestra. We would layer and layer the parts and often times—if I wanted a cello sound for instance—pitch them down in Pro Tools. Or on ‘Shush,’ I pitched Andrew’s trumpet up and down—a poor man’s horn section. On ‘The Difference Between,’ Aaron pitched my harmonium way down and it functions as a sort of baritone sax during the orchestral outro. There are some long outros on this record to be sure. We sort of had a dogma that we would not fade anything out or in (though we cheated a bit once on the latter) so you would hear everything being picked up and put down, illustrating the studio as a player on the record. And yes, I’m aware that I sound like a pretentious blowhard.”

Adam Goldberg’s interest in music stretches back as far as his acting credits. While beginning his acclaimed acting career with memorable roles in Dazed & Confused, Saving Private Ryan and a recurring role on “Friends,” Goldberg was simultaneously playing in bands and making home recordings on a Tascam 4-track. As his film career flourished, Goldberg devoted more time to his music, writing a song for the film Hebrew Hammer in which he also starred, as well as composing and performing the score alongside Steven Drozd for his 2005 directorial effort I Love Your Work. Prior to that, Goldberg wrote and performed the music for his IFC special “Running with the Bulls.”

As for the Goldberg sister, little is known about a purported twin that Goldberg calls Celeste. Whether she is actually a bearded twin sister who masterminds these projects or just a thorny offshoot of Dissociative Identity Disorder remains unclear. Given the lifelong acrimony that Goldberg attests pervades their relationship, the future of THE GOLDBERG SISTERS is precarious at best.

The track listing for The Goldberg Sisters album is:

The Room Mother Please (The World Is Not Our Home) Shush Don’t Grow You’re Beautiful When You Die Erik Erikson Third Person The Difference Between Skin of the Patriot (Blame It On Your Youth) The Heart Grows Fonder